DISCLAIMER: I do not and will not ever own any part of the Harry Potter franchise. I make not profit from this, it's just for fun. Any recognisable characters/places etc. belong to their respective owners.

"Pansy, I've told you before and I'll tell you again – I don't care about this whole soulmate thing! I don't care whether or not I'm 'destined' to be with someone. So can you please, please leave it alone?"

Today was the day. Hermione had spent the past two days being hounded by each of her friends in turn following her and Harry's conversation in her office. They had argued, reasoned and joked, and so far none of them had managed to get her to change her mind about whether or not soulmates were a good thing.

Pansy looked at Hermione for a second, sighed and then smiled at her.

"Okay, if you don't want me to talk about it, I won't." She paused, and then said quietly in a sing-song voice, "but you only have 15 minutes left."

"PANSY!" Hermione shouted, but then her anger faded and she put her forehead down on the table, defeated. Still with her head down, she looked sideways at the café they had decided to sit in to wait for her timer to finish. Newly opened on Diagon Alley, the place was crowded yet homely. It smelt like freshly brewed coffee, and summertime sunshine spilled through the large windows onto mismatched tables and chairs. Looking around quickly, Hermione couldn't see anyone who looked as nervous as she felt right then. Maybe, she thought, they aren't even in here. She had originally protested against going outside at all, but Pansy had threatened to never speak to her again if she didn't come out for lunch; obviously she wouldn't have followed through with it, but Hermione would rather stay in her good books. Plus, she really was hungry.

"Look," Pansy said, softer than before. "I won't say anything else about my personal views on it, but I have to ask why you hate the idea so much. I mean, I don't often agree with Potter –"

"Harry." Hermione corrected, lifting her head up.

"Right, sorry – force of habit. I don't often agree with Harry, but he has a point when he says it's a good thing. I mean, from what you told me about the conversation he probably could have gone about it in a gentler way, but he brought up a few valid points, did he not?" Pansy said, looking at her expectantly.

Exhaling and sitting back in her seat, Hermione looked at her friend. A year ago she wouldn't have even given Pansy the time of day, never mind let her see the inner workings of her mind, but Pansy's matching with Ron about six months ago had brought them to be closer than she had ever imagined. Once she and everyone else had gotten over the initial shock – Ron himself had nearly fled the country, and Pansy had assured Hermione in private that the feeling had been mutual – they had all taken baby steps towards accommodating her, and eventually the two witches had set aside their differences and become good friends.

Of course, once you found your supposed soulmate there was no rule that said you had to actually act on it, but more often than not people found themselves becoming attached (or even just curious) rather quickly. After about a fortnight Pansy and Ron had become almost inseparable – once they had gotten over a few issues during meetings that had mostly ended with public screaming matches.

Hermione wondered to herself why people even tried that hard to be with someone they hadn't chosen themselves, but she guessed that perhaps it was the allure of what could happen that led them to stick it out. After all, those little numbers had been around for as long as anybody could remember – further back than even the earliest records – and it seemed to be a mostly successful system, for both Wizardkind and Muggles alike. Obviously sometimes things got in the way; arranged marriages (particularly in pureblooded families), death or very, very occasionally divorce could put an end to these 'perfect matches'. Hermione's issue though, was something a little more personal.

Realising that Pansy was still waiting for an answer, she looked around as if trying to find an excuse not to say anything. Hermione had never liked admitting her faults – it felt like admitting defeat – but the quickly diminishing numbers on her wrist were almost whispering to her that it was now or never.

"Okay," she conceded, "the reason I don't like the whole idea is because I don't like to be out of control. And having this,' she said, pointing at her finger, 'is like this constant reminder that my future is already planned out. Like, before the war when everything was building up, my future and the futures of all those other kids who were roped into the fighting were already planned – our paths were set, and the only place they were leading to was war. I just… I just don't want something this important to already be decided for me. I want to make some choices for myself for once. And I know it was a bit silly to think I could control it by wearing that ring for over a year, but that was the only way I could think of for me to feel comfortable about it." she finished.

Pansy considered her words for a moment, and then seemed to decide what was best to say.

"Look, Hermione. I get it. We were all too young to do what we had to do. We should have been allowed a normal childhood where the only things we had to worry about were our grades and who would ask us to go to Hogsmeade with them. But we weren't allowed that. Instead, we fought in a war – on different sides I might add, even if I wasn't actually a death eater like dear old daddy – and we came out the other side; we were different people to the children we went in as, but we were alive nonetheless. It's over Hermione. The right side won and now we don't have to worry about it anymore. So why not lose control? Why not just enjoy life; ups, downs and curveballs included?"

Once again, Hermione sighed deeply, thinking over what had been said.

"I think I could," she replied, "one day. But just not in the next…" she looked down at her timer and gasped, "minute and a half?! Oh Merlin Pansy, what do I do?!" She looked up at her friend for some much needed support and was surprised to find her looking out of the window at someone.

Suddenly Pansy smiled, stood up and waved at whoever was out there, motioning for them to come inside. The bell above the coffee shop door tinkled as whoever it was stepped inside – Hermione was too busy looking down at the glowing numbers to even notice anything else.

"Narcissa!" Pansy cried. "How lovely it is to see you again!"

The Malfoy matriarch came and stood by their table, not recognising Hermione due to the mass of curls shielding her face.

Hermione meanwhile, was counting down with her eyes fixed firmly on the timer.

60… 59… 58… 57…

"Pansy my dear, how are you? You look simply wonderful – Mr. Weasley is certainly a very lucky man!"

45… 44… 43… 42… Hermione's heart was thudding so hard she thought it might burst out of her chest.

Pansy laughed and replied "He certainly is, isn't he? So, what brings you here of all places?"

36… 35… 34… 33… Hermione couldn't decide whether so wanted time to speed up or slow down.

Narcissa gestured towards the door without looking. "Draco did – he's back from America you know. He's always talking to me about 'getting me out of the house', so I made him come with me for lunch. It was just chance that you happened to be here I suppose – but I'm ever so glad you were! You simply must come to the Manor one day so we can properly catch up."

19… 18… 17… 16… Hermione heard the bell this time as someone new entered the coffee shop, but she couldn't bring herself to look up at who it was. Instead, she chose to focus on the numbers. She was so focussed in fact, that she didn't notice the conversation that was occurring between the two women next to her.

"Here he comes now – Draco, over here!" Narcissa said as she waved him over.

12… 11… 10… 9… Hermione felt the sudden urge to run, but she couldn't very well run away from her own hand, no matter how hard she tried.

"Hi Draco," Pansy said as she greeted the new arrival. "Long time no see."

7…

Draco stood next to his mother and greeted Pansy with a hug.

"Hey Pans. I guess it has been a while hasn't it? Sorry I didn't visit very much… I think I just needed time away." He said a little sheepishly and with a sort of apologetic shrug. Like his mother before him, he also failed to notice the presence of a certain panicking witch.

4…

"Doesn't matter really, I get to see you now." she said offhandedly. Suddenly, her tone of voice changed, and she said slyly "you remember Hermione don't you Draco?"

1… 0

Upon hearing her name, Hermione's head shot up and she took in the two new faces.

"Malfoy?!" she exclaimed.

"GRANGER?!" Malfoy countered.

All of a sudden, a bright golden glow beamed out of both of their middle fingers, as their timers came to a complete stop.

The rest of the café looked towards the small group. Hermione was in shock, Draco looked like he was about to faint, Narcissa Malfoy just stared at her son and Pansy emitted a small cackle.

"Oh," she laughed, "this is going to be good."

A.N: Hope you like it! As for those reviewers who were a little confused, hopefully this chapter and the next few will clear things up – bear with me! Also, I'll be trying to update every two days or so while I'm not in school. Thanks for reading – please review!